Island



(No Model.)

'0. FLETCHER.

MAGHINE FOR GOMBING WOOL, a No. 271,325. PatentedJamSO, 1883.

UNITED STATES PATENT OrEieE.

CHARLESFLETGHER, OF PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND.

MACHINE FOR COMBING WQOL, 84C.

" SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 271,325, datedJanuary 30, 1883.

Application filed March 10, 1882. (No model.)

i 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OHARLEs FLETCHER, of the city of Providence, in theState of Rhode Island, have invented a new and useful Improvement inMachines forOombingWVool, 850., of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to that class of machines, known as combing,carding, and drawing machines,

for preparing the sliver of wool fiber. In such machines front and backdraft-rolls have heretofore been used in a wellknown manner, and anapron has been used with and passing between the front draft-rolls in awellknown manner, to aid in the drawing process, such apron having beenconstructed with a seam or joining across -it where the ends werebrought together.

My invention consists in making this apron endless and seamlesstransversely of it, and using and applying it in the same place andposition as before in the machine,substantially so as to'constitute acombination of the apron with its co-operating rolls, substantially ashereinalter described and claimed; and the principle upon which itoperates is that, because there is no such joint or scam in such apron,the fiber, in passing through between such apron and the draft-rollpressing upon it and against the other roll, Will grasp and draw thefiber evenly at all parts of the impact of the apron against it, becauseall parts of the apron passing between the draft-rolls are ofsubstantially the same texture and elasticity, owing to the manner inwhich I construct it, as described. Besides, the grease or oil expressedfrom the fiber while passing between the draft-roll and apron does notoperate to destroy the apron for use by penetrating into and acting uponto harden or destroy any glue, cement, or joining material used to unitethe ends of the apron in a suitable manner for use with suchdraft-rolls, because there is no such joining of ends and consequentjoining material used with my apron upon which it can act. It is ofcourse understood and well known in practice that the apron passesbetween the draft-rolls under tension, and that this tension must begreater to promote its effective operation the harder and less elasticthe material of the apron is, and if any part of an apron is harder andless elastic than another the tension necessarily applied to the entireapron to cause it to work effectively at these harder parts is greaterthan is necessary for the effective operation of themore elastic partsof 5 the apron; and as any practicable joint formed by the uniting ofthe ends of such apron is necessarily much harder and less elastic thanthe other parts, it is obvious that my seamless apron requires lesstension to cause it to work 6 efi'ectively and evenly in drawing thefiber in all its parts than ajointed apron, and this enables the entiremachine to be operated with less power and wear of parts.

Having thus described the principle upon 6 which my invention operates,I will now proceed to describe its construction as used upon awool-combing machine.

The drawing represents the draft-rolls of a combing-machine and adjacentparts of the machine to which my invention is applied.

A A are the front draft-rolls ot' the combingmachine. D D are the backdraft-rolls. E are the fallergills. The fiber passes first through theback draft-rollers, thence over the 7 faller-gills, and thence betweenthe trout draftrollers, which run at such a relative speed as to drawout the sliver as it passes through them. These parts of the machine arewell known and of the ordinary construction, and need no 8 furtherdescription to be understood. The other parts of the machine to whichthey are connected arealso of the ordinary construction and well known,and therefore are not shown in the drawing.

At some distance below the lower draft-roll A, and parallel thereto, ismounted the roller B, of equal length with the former. Around the lowerroller A and the roller B is passed the endless apron (J, which has abreadth equal 9 to the length of these rolls, and is pressed upon by theupper draft-roll as it passes the nip of that and the lower one.Thiscauses the apron to traverse continuously around the roller B, whichis allowed to revolve freely for 9 that purpose, and to presentconstantly a different part of the apron to the nip ot' the rolls A A.The fiber to be drawn out passes between the upper draft-roll A and thesurface of the traversing apron 0, thus forming an elas- 1 tie grip uponthe fiber. which is necessary to properly draw it out. The apron U ismade of endless material, so as to have no seam or joining across itsbreadth. It thus presents structure at all pointsof its traverse, whichbetween the rolls A A a substantially-uniform What I claim as new and ofmy invention takes hold of the fiber constantly pressed In combinationwith the drawing-rolls A A, against it at all points alike, and thusdraws the endless traveling cushion or apron 0, pass- I 5 it out withthe greatest degree of evenness and ing between then], formed of anendless piece regularity, which is essential to the perfect I ofmaterial without joining or seam, substanpreparation of the sliver.After passing the tially as described.

rolls A A and apron G the sliver may be either CHARLES FLETCHER.conducted to a can or into other parts of the W itnessesz- I I machine,to be further operated upon, accorcl- G. L. EATON,

ing to its construction, DAVID HALL RICE.

